New Scientist: World-class radio telescopes face closure

Science Now: Famed Radio Telescope Faces the Axe

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I wonder if Paul Allen could be convinced to save Arecibo for SETI purposes.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Well, this is what's called "budgeting" :
We have to do it at our house--we cannot afford to operate all our existing cars while also buying the new car requested by our husband--and so something has to give. I guess the NSF isn't any different.

I think if they're going to shut Arecibo down, they should at least keep it open as some kind of historic landmark, if not an actual shrine, rather that dismantle it and turn it into a parking lot or tacky subdivisions or something.

That would be a very interesting parking lot. They could use it for all of the flying cars and motorcycles.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

Arecibo would make a killer skate park....

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Any comment I could make would get me in trouble!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Its times like these I wonder what would've happened if we had a pro-science government...

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Definitley Thought-Provoking
(my astro-blog/podcast)

That really is a shame.

Couldn't we cut other, less important programs, such as FEMA and State/Federal Prisons.

Overall, I suppose if it leads to technological advances (and new discoveries) it is worth it in the long run.


...And I totally agree with keeping Arecibo open as a historical landmark.

Where else they going to find an antenna with the kind of gain they can get out of Aracibo?

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Sue ikki
mi hatenu yume no
hotsure kana---Choko
(This final scene, I
I will not see to the end.
My dream is fraying.)

Talk about slitting your throat. Aracibo is one of the few facilities that can pinpoint with great precision exactly where and when a threatening asteroid or comet might impact earth. Loss of this national asset could neutralize any civil defense option to an impending impact event.

Funny, because yesterday I was talking with an old college buddy of mine who was, and is, very active in ham radio. During a field day, years ago, he told me they got burried from a signal that seemed next door but learned it was from a ham transmitting from Arecibo.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board!

I couldn't imagine how they could use Arecibo for ham radio so I did a search. It looks like the ham radio club there has one heck of an antenna set up there.
http://www.naic.edu/~angel/kp4ao/ham/wp3r.html

I am going to have to listen for them next field day.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

Thanks. You cleared up a misconception. I assumed it was the disk itself being used as a transmitting antenna, with some kind of pivoting reflector at the focus somehow.

The disk can be used as a transmitter. Hopefully, Arecibo keeps going, but my second choice would be for the local ham club to get it.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board!